Work out how many skeins of floss your project needs before you buy.
Floss figures are estimates. Adjust for your tension and technique, and split skeins by color coverage on multicolor patterns.
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Running out of a color halfway through a block is the one shortage that shows in the finished piece, because dye lots never match perfectly between production runs. This cross stitch thread calculator estimates how many skeins of floss your project needs, so you can buy once and buy right.
Four things drive the answer: the stitch count of the design, your fabric count, how many strands you stitch with, and how much of the grid is actually filled. Higher counts use less thread per stitch, and every extra strand costs floss, which is why the estimate moves so much when you change them.
The figure covers a single color, so on a multicolor chart, apply each color share of the design to the total. Still need to know what to cut? The fabric calculator handles sizing, and the full calculator does both plus a time estimate.
It depends on your stitch count, fabric count, how many strands you use, and your tension. As a rough guide, one DMC skein covers somewhere between 1,500 and 1,800 stitches at 14 count with 2 strands. This calculator estimates the skeins for a single color, so for a multicolor pattern, split the total by each color share of the design.
Around 1,500 to 1,800 full cross stitches at 14 count with 2 strands. The arithmetic behind it: a DMC skein holds 8 metres of 6-strand floss, so pulling 2 strands gives you about 24 metres of working thread, and a single cross on 14 count uses roughly 9 millimetres once the travel on the back of the work is counted. That leaves room for starts, ends and the odd unpicked stitch. Go finer and the figure rises, because smaller stitches swallow less thread; add strands and it falls in proportion.
Two strands on 14-count Aida is the standard, and it is what most patterns assume. Go up to three on 11 count for fuller coverage, and down to one on 18 count or finer. More strands means more floss, which is why the strand setting changes the estimate so much.
Very few patterns fill every square of their grid. Coverage is the share that actually gets stitched, so a design with plenty of bare fabric around the motif might only be 60 percent, while a dense full-coverage piece approaches 100. Lowering it lowers the floss estimate accordingly.
Yes. A higher count means smaller stitches, so each one swallows less thread, and the same design uses noticeably less floss on 18 count than on 11. The calculator factors your count and strand choice into every estimate.
Buy one spare skein of any color you use heavily. Dye lots vary slightly between production runs, and running out halfway through a large block is the one mistake that shows in the finished piece. For colors used in a handful of stitches, one skein is always plenty.
New to counted cross stitch? Browse our beginner guides and techniques & tips on the blog, or see how our digital patterns work.